Recruitment FAQs: What is recruitment?

FAQs 💡

 

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What is the definition of recruitment?

Recruitment is the process of finding and hiring candidates for particular jobs. The recruitment and selection process is made up of several stages; from initial discussions with a potential candidate, right the way through to candidate onboarding.

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What is the recruitment industry?

The recruitment industry encompasses all personnel, companies and software relating to sourcing talent, hiring and job seeking.

Within the recruitment industry, Recruiters or Recruitment Consultants act as the intermediary between companies looking to hire candidates, and jobseekers searching for a new career opportunity.

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How many recruitment agencies are there in the UK?

Recruitment is one of the biggest industries in the world, with almost 40,000 recruitment agencies in the UK alone, and hundreds of thousands of employees.

But there is no early career job agency as flexible, experienced, and dedicated as the Give a Grad a Go team.

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Why is recruitment important?

The importance of recruitment is two-fold. Recruitment is key in helping candidates secure their dream roles, whilst also ensuring the internal development of growing businesses.

The purpose of recruitment is to identify the right candidates for specific job roles and attract these candidates to an organisation. Successful recruitment isn’t just about filling a single job vacancy, but about organisational performance in the long term.

At Give a Grad a Go, our recruitment services play an important role in supporting early career professionals to build careers they’ll love.

Over the past decade, we’ve been championing the aspirations of graduates, with our graduate recruitment agency helping thousands of talented candidates secure jobs at top businesses across the globe.

For fresh graduates that are unsure about their employment prospects, our expert Recruiters play an important part in the exploration of job options, providing career advice and CV tips.

When it comes to more experienced individuals who are looking for their next challenge, our Recruiters act as an important point of contact between employers and candidates, helping to secure interviews, ace assessments and obtain a job offer.

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What are the benefits of recruitment agencies?

For candidates, there are numerous benefits to using a recruitment agency, namely:

  • A Recruiter will find out your specific job requirements or career needs and do a lot of the initial application process for you, in terms of finding suitable companies and determining whether you would be the right fit for the job role.
  • For many graduate jobs that you apply for through recruitment companies, you don’t have to create a cover letter, saving you time during the application process.
  • Working with a recruitment agency to find a job speeds up the job-hunting process. Not only is it quicker to apply, but candidates can receive responses and feedback more quickly too.
  • A problem shared is a problem halved. If you are struggling to find a job, speaking to a Recruitment Consultant can help to encourage and motivate you; we know the job hunt can be a long old road!
  • As well as Recruiters providing a support network, they can also help a lot with CV writing and career advice.
  • If your current skills and qualifications aren’t the right fit for a role, Recruitment Consultants can recommend training or internships that might help you pursue a certain career path, or they can also suggest other job roles that you might not have considered.
  • At Give a Grad a Go, we provide interview help for every candidate. Take a look at our interview questions hub, complete with model answers to the most common interview questions.
  • If you are unsuccessful in an interview, Recruiters will provide feedback, to help candidates to understand why they were unsuccessful and what they can do to improve in future interviews.
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How do recruitment agencies work?

Recruitment agencies act as the liaison between businesses and candidates, helping companies source and hire talent, and helping jobseekers find jobs.

Recruitment agencies work with candidates to understand their skills, career interests, and if they have any specific job requirements.

The Recruitment Consultant will suggest suitable job roles and help the candidate secure interviews.

At Give a Grad a Go, we add value by helping candidates prepare for job interviews, providing feedback on any unsuccessful interviews, and enabling the candidate to work on any areas for improvement.

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What is the recruitment process?

At Give a Grad a Go, we ensure that our application process is one of the most streamlined of all graduate recruitment agencies in the UK.

All you need to do is register a profile on our site, upload your CV and apply to your dream role.

We ensure that every job application is reviewed by a member of our expert recruitment team.

In the event that your application appears to be a good match for the job, a recruitment consultant will get in touch with you promptly to talk you through the next steps.

Our specialist Recruiters help candidates research companies and prepare for interviews and assessments – all before candidates have met with their prospective employer!

Post-interview, our team is on hand to pass on feedback, manage administrative duties, and liaise with candidates whilst they are onboarded to their new roles.

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What does a Recruitment Consultant do?

A Recruitment Consultant usually works at a recruitment agency; where they will develop a portfolio of clients and a network of candidates.

A career in recruitment involves helping businesses recruit talent and simplifying the hiring process for employers.

This includes sourcing the best candidates for companies, pitching roles to candidates and highlighting the best career opportunities, shortlisting top candidates, and arranging interviews.

Recruitment Consultants will often work with companies long-term, finding out more about their business and which hires have been successful.

Recruitment professionals will also utilise their knowledge of the market to offer advice to job applicants and companies, sometimes helping businesses create a hiring plan or recruitment strategy.

Find out more information about what a Recruitment Consultant does on a daily basis.

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How do recruitment agencies make money?

Most recruitment agencies will make money by charging employers a fee, which is usually a percentage of the annual salary for the job role once a successful candidate has been placed.

Some recruitment agencies will also offer additional services to employers, such as marketing support, as another way of generating revenue.

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Do recruitment agencies charge candidates?

No, recruitment agencies do not usually charge candidates, but charge the employer a fee.

This is typically a percentage of the annual salary for the job role once a successful candidate has been placed.

At Give a Grad a Go, we don’t charge candidates to register with us and use our recruitment services.

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Why use a recruitment agency to find a job?

If you are struggling to find the right job, utilising the services of a recruitment agency is a great option.

Matching job seekers and employers is what recruitment firms are built for.

At Give a Grad a Go, it’s what we’re best at:

  • We offer tailored graduate recruitment services
  • We have a dedicated and hands-on approach
  • We have a deep understanding of the graduate jobs market
  • We provide holistic support for graduate job seekers
  • We care about improving graduate employability
  • With the majority of our recruitment team being made up of recent graduates, we understand the challenges of the application and interview process for university leavers.

So, our specialist recruitment team is here to deliver career guidance, industry insights, interview prep and helpful feedback.

By registering a profile and uploading your CV to our website, our recruitment team is able to match you to jobs you had not yet considered, alongside your direct applications.

In this sense, using recruitment agencies like Give a Grad a Go is important if you’re looking to widen your scope of applications.

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Are recruitment agencies worth it?

Recruitment agencies such as Give a Grad a Go are worth utilising whatever career stage you’re at.

As the UK’s leading graduate job agency, Give a Grad a Go has a dedicated website for graduate jobs that is supplemented by our expert recruitment service.

Whether you’re a new graduate in need of some career advice or an experienced candidate looking for your 2nd or 3rd job, the Give a Grad a Go team is on hand to ensure your graduate job search is a success!

We work with top businesses to offer the best graduate jobs; Our portfolio of exciting graduate roles spans growing tech start-ups, FMCG giants and large financial institutions.

To apply for a role on our graduate jobs board, all you need to do is register a profile with us and upload your CV before submitting your application – it’s that simple, and it costs you nothing!

At Give a Grad a Go, we don’t charge candidates to register with us, use our recruitment services or seek our career advice.

Still not sure if it’s worth it? Read our Google reviews to find out what past candidates have to say about why you should use Give a Grad a Go to find your next job…

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What is the difference between recruitment and selection?

Recruitment and selection are two different stages of the employment process:

  • The recruitment part of the process involves sourcing candidates and suggesting certain job roles based on candidates’ skills, qualifications and other attributes.
  • The selection part of the employment process revolves around screening and ‘vetting’ candidates, so that the Employer, Hiring Manager or Recruitment Consultant can select the best person for the job.

Overall, the recruitment and selection process involves the entire employment process from start to finish.

Summary video for ‘what is recruitment and selection?’

Tip: Change the playback speed in the settings at the bottom right corner, to suit your learning requirements! Please feel free to embed this video on your website, or for more great videos for graduates and employers visit the Give a Grad a Go.

 

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Do recruitment agencies work weekends?

Most recruitment agencies do not work weekends. At Give a Grad a Go, we work from Monday to Friday. For our office opening hours, visit our contact us page.

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Why do I need to register to Give a Grad a Go?

Our goal is to help you to get a graduate job that perfectly matches your career ambitions.

To do this, we need to find out about you, your background, your skills and what you want to get out of your career. If you don’t know yet, that is fine – we might be able to help you figure that out too.

Registering and completing your profile (which takes minutes to do) will allow us to determine your career objectives and your past experience. 93% of candidates we find jobs for have completed their profile!

Once you have completed your profile, make sure you’ve ‘opted in’ for job alerts – so we can update you via email about the jobs which best match what you are looking for.

What are you waiting for? Register now to begin your career journey!

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How do I apply for jobs?

Once you are registered, you can start your journey to a graduate job by applying for any of the career opportunities on our graduate jobs board.

We have purposely made the application process very easy to navigate.

When you find a graduate job role you like the look of, all you need to do is select the appropriate CV (you can store as many different versions as you like on your profile), and click ‘apply’. You can keep track of all your job applications on your dashboard.

Once we have received your application for a role, we will assess your CV and decide whether or not it matches what that particular client is looking for. If your application is successful, you will get a call from a Recruitment Consultant, who will want to find out more details about your background, skill set and career ambitions. They will then decide whether you are a good fit for the role you have applied for.

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What is a shortlisted job application?

If your job application makes it into a shortlist, this means your CV is initially deemed an interesting fit for the role. At this stage, it is likely that one of our Recruitment Consultants will be in contact to tell you about the company and the ins and outs of the job role. This is a chance to sell yourself so they will also be keen to know why you think you would be a good fit for the position.

If the Recruitment Consultant feels the role is a good match and that you would be suitable for the role, you will then be sent further information via email for you to go away and research the company online.

Once the Consultant is sure that you will be a good fit (and provided that you still like the sound of the job opportunity) we will send your CV and profile over to the company.

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What happens at the interview stage?

It is up to the client whether they’d like to invite you to interview. If you are unsuccessful, our team will reconvene to look for other job roles you’d be a great fit for. Equally, we encourage you to apply for other roles you like the look of on the Give a Grad a Go jobs board.

If you are successful and are invited in to interview, we will be on hand to help you prepare. Also, take a look at the interview questions page on our website for help with how to answer common graduate interview questions. After the interview is over, we will call the employer to get your feedback and let you know what the company thought of you.

If you get the job, congratulations! We will then organise your start date, employment contract and references.

If you are unsuccessful this time, we’ll get as much interview feedback as we can from the company, and will keep you in mind for similar job roles that come up.

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Why haven't you managed to find me a job yet?

The route to success isn’t always clear, and can often take different directions. We cannot promise you’ll find a job through us, but we will do everything we can to help you get on your way to finding the right graduate job for you.

We hope that even if we don’t manage to get you a job this time, you’ll still have a great experience with us – and utilise our career resources! Plus, we’d still love to hear from you again in the future.

Something else?